The recent Shapella update for Ethereum (ETH) made it possible for strikers to withdraw their locked ETH. There was some fear that this would lead to a large withdrawal and sale of ETH tokens. In the end, the opposite turned out to be true: users are actually staking more ETH. Since the hard fork is the number stopped ether has already risen by 4.4 million, according to data from Glassnode.
Ethereum staking is popular
The introduction of Proof of Stake (PoS) appears to be a success for the network on many fronts. It improves efficiency and scalability and ensures widespread engagement from the crypto community. This is clearly visible in the total amount of ETH that is being staked.
Since the Shapella upgrade, this number has risen above 22.5 million and represents a value of more than $41 billion. The number seems to have increased as the upgrade finally made it possible to strike flexibly. Users who have been pegging ETH since the launch of the Beacon Chain in December 2020 have had to wait years to access their tokens.
Passive ETH income
Staking on Ethereum has its appeal because with an annual yield of 4% to 5%, it offers a stable means of passive income. although decentralized finance (DeFi) applications can also provide good extra income, there are also risks involved. Together with the deflationary properties of ether, staking makes it all the more interesting to get your hands on more ETH tokens easily.
The popularity of strikes has caused waiting times to increase validator to be increased significantly. Users have to wait more than a month according to dates from Wenmerge. The validators check the transactions and must stake a minimum amount of 32 ETH.
Consequences ethereum price?
The positive sentiment regarding the largest altcoin does not seem to translate directly into the price yet. The ether price briefly dipped below $1,000 during the crypto winter and briefly touched $2,100 in April. Recently, however, the price has been stable just above $1,800, but the entire market has stalled somewhat. Still, the analysts at Crypto Insiders have one sharp rise in the price ahead.